Spring Hill Dodgers fan building Hall of Fame worthy collection

SPRING HILL, Fla. - Inside Freddie Kranz's Spring Hill home you will find a collection of baseball memorabilia that could stand toe to toe with the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. 

"I got some good memories here," Kranz said. 

Stacked floor to ceiling in his back office is what Kranz calls his "Dodger Room," where Kranz has collected and cataloged hundreds of pieces of memorabilia from his favorite baseball team, the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

"When I moved here in '89, that's when it really took off," Kranz recalls. 

Since moving to Spring Hill meant being closer to the Dodgers' former Spring Training home in Vero Beach, Kranz took annual pilgrimages to watch his Dodgers play ball and add to his collection. 

The backstory:

Kranz was born in Brooklyn when the Dodgers were a subway stop away rather than a plane ride away. 

"That's me in 1955, two years old in Brooklyn," Kranz said, pointing to a small black and white picture inside his Dodger Room. 

Though they moved to Los Angeles when Kranz was four years old, the fandom he felt for the Dodgers only continued to grow. 

"It's 365 days a year," Kranz said. "When they win the World Series my grandchildren say, 'It's going to be a Dodger Christmas!'"

By the numbers:

While his collection of memorabilia started with one autographed picture of former Dodgers' first baseman Steve Garvey in 1989, today, Kranz doesn't know just how many bobbleheads, baseballs, bats or collector's items hang on his walls. 

It's a collection that begins inside the Kranz's garage and continues back into the Dodger Room. 

"The organization has been good to me," Kranz said. 

And though this 72-year-old superfan bleeds Dodger blue, it wasn't long ago when doctors couldn't stop his Brooklyn-born heart from bleeding out. 

"My cardiologist came down and said all we could do was pray," Kranz remembers being told. "And then the surgeon came down and said 'I've got to get up there or else he's going to bleed to death.'"

The other side:

In May, Kranz went to the hospital for a cardiac catheterization. He thought it would be a quick procedure, but it turned out to be anything but. 

"Unfortunately, they perforated an artery. I was bleeding out," Kranz explained. 

Freddie's wife, Nora, was told to prepare for the worst. 

"They came in and told me that he's bleeding and that they're trying to not do major surgery," Nora Kranz said. "It didn't work and a little bit later they said they had to and to 'Call your family and pray.'"

Those prayers were, thankfully, answered. 

"The surgeon came down and said, 'I held your husband's heart for 45 minutes to make sure the adhesion stayed on,'" Kranz was told afterward. 

Now, Freddie's heart is once again beating just fine. 

"I appreciate life," he said. 

And that heart is now longing to see his beloved Dodgers chase another World Series title. 

"I would say I don't get as mad when they lose, but I would be lying," Kranz joked. 

And perhaps with another World Series to celebrate, Kranz would continue to add to his prized Dodger Room.